"Starship Troopers" is one of the most misunderstood and, therefore,
underrated movies of the 1990s. It came under attack by a few fans of
Robert A. Heinlein, author of the 1959 book on which the film was
based, for not being enough like the novel. The
Archie-and-Veronica-in-space plotline was criticized for being shallow
and juvenile. Some people, incredibly, even accused the movie of being
pro-fascist, when it's precisely the opposite. And it didn't do very
well at the boxoffice, mostly because of its R rating.

Director Paul Verhoeven and screenwriter Ed Neumeier made a more
important error, though: they overestimated the intelligence of their
audience, assuming that it would be clear that the film was
successfully walking the same knife edge that their "RoboCop" had.
"Starship Troopers" is both the adventure movie it seems to be and a
parody of youth-oriented adventure movies. They modeled the film on the
gung-ho propagandistic war movies made during the early years of World
War II; instead of a movie about the culture we see, it's a movie that
would have been made by that culture -- a recruiting film for the war
against the Bugs. This is very explicit in the film itself: it opens
and closes with big screaming words proclaiming the heroism of warriors
and the certainty of victory -- but this was missed by too many in the
audience.

One "problem" is that Verhoeven's movie is intensely exciting and
kinetic, with brilliantly-done special effects (mostly Scott Anderson
and Phil Tippett), dynamic battle scenes and thrilling scenes of
heroism. Recruiting films have to be this exciting, of course, and it's
true that the initial impulse to make the movie was when producer Jon
Davison and Neumeier discussed the possibility of making a movie about
young soldiers fighting giant insects. Both having read and loved
Heinlein's novel as teenagers, they realized it provided the perfect
setting for their idea.

After a brief initial scene of battle against the alien insect enemy,
as seen by a news reporter (who's dismembered in front of the camera),
the story flashes back to the previous year, and follows a group of
friends, Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien), Carmen Ibanez (Denise
Richards), Dizzy Flores (Dina Meyer) and Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick
Harris), who graduate from high school and immediately enter the
service, in Johnny's case, for the wrong reason. He's trying to impress
his girlfriend Carmen, ignoring the equally attractive Dizzy, who's in
love with him.

War breaks out when the insects (mysteriously) send a small asteroid
across the galaxy; it wipes out Buenos Aires, where all the kids are
from, and they soon find themselves preparing for real battle.
Heinlein's novel was one of his most polemic, and really consisted
mostly of scenes set in a high school classroom as Heinlein, who'd
originally planned to make the military his life, expounds on the value
of serving the state. In "Starship Troopers," one cannot become a full
citizen unless one has spent two years in service to the state; the
novel vaguely mentions that this can be done in non-military
capacities, but all we see are soldiers and the like.

The movie uses this idea, but it does not endorse it. The commentary
track features Verhoeven and Neumeier, who frequently point out
particular scenes that they intended to be critical of the society they
depict. One of the points they hoped to make was that war tends to push
a society towards fascism; their error was in not making this point
more obvious -- but their comments now do make their intent clear, and
that the movie was always critical. You'd think that when Carl shows up
at the end dressed like an SS Storm Trooper even the densest members of
the audience would have caught on, but they didn't.

The commentary track is lively and interesting -- Verhoeven is as
dynamic a speaker as a director -- but the definition of "fascism" that
he and Neuemeier are working with is unclear and too broad.
Nonetheless, they make their points well enough that some who
misunderstood the film before may realize just how good it is.

The other supplemental material is relatively standard for an expensive
movie released on DVD, though it is interesting. There are a couple of
cut scenes, a couple of screen tests, a trailer and a making-of
documentary. The most interesting additional material, most of which is
on the second side, are several sequences showing how a few
effects-and-action laden scenes were gradually created.

Since this was a big-scale Hollywood movie, the sound is outstanding;
since it was a Verhoeven movie, it's also extravagant and subtle at the
same time, and a good showcase for any home audio system.

Verhoeven is a poet of the excessive: when he's given a movie that
allows him to crank up the pace and go for broke, he can turn out
sensationally good pop entertainment. His movies move so swiftly that
few in the audience ever realize just how much, and how radically, he
moves the camera -- the sleek, speedy changes of position are simply a
part of the fabric of the movie.

Despite the understated political commentary, this is really an
adventure film for the adolescent in all of us, not a political satire.
It's a bang-bang shoot-'em-up thriller, with action aplenty, a
rocket-like pace, and more visual wonders than any ten rival action
pictures, without any of the machine-made quality of most studio
big-action movies. Despite the fact that the movie is really rather
light and airy, despite all the carnage and action, even though at
first glance it seems kind of dispensable, "Starship Troopers," in
terms of sheer energy and filmmaking technique, was one of the best
movies of 1997.